Freelancefolder

Plan a Marketing Strategy for your Freelance Career

Posted January 30, 2012 in Marketing

Going the freelance route can be quite an exhilarating process. You drop the 9-to-5 workday in exchange for a whole lot more freedom and independence. But with this job track also comes the burden of management.

Personal branding and marketing is a big part of growing your own freelance business. You need to get your name out there into the world and hopefully reel in a few clients. It can be difficult, but I have offered a few ideas below which can get you off on the right foot. It’s best to plan ahead even with a small marketing strategy.

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Freelancing Un-resolutions to Make 2012 Your Best Freelancing Year Yet

Posted January 5, 2012 in Marketing

Everyone will be writing posts about New Year’s resolutions, so how about one with un-resolutions? That is, instead of talking about what you should be doing, how about we talk about what you ought to stop doing instead?

As we ring out the old year, let’s sweep out some bad freelancing practices along with it, shall we? These practices and habits are things that undo freelancers, keeping them small and stopping them from succeeding. I sat down and thought of….

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Two Weeks to More Client Leads

Posted December 22, 2011 in Marketing

Have you ever gotten desperate for clients? Maybe you don’t know how you’re going to pay next month’s rent. Maybe your car broke down and repairs will cost more than you have right now. Maybe a tree fell into your house and your insurance won’t cover it (that’s a true story, by the way).

Whatever the reason, you need clients. Right now. What’s a freelancer to do?

It’s time to step up your marketing game! Fortunately, there are tried and tested marketing strategies that have proven to be effective for freelancers. No need to reinvent the wheel.

Read the list below and choose two you can implement in the next two weeks.

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How to Devise the Perfect Freelancing Social Media Strategy for You

Posted December 14, 2011 in How-To, Marketing, Social Media

How can a freelancer develop an effective social media strategy with a reasonable investment of time?

As freelancers we rely on social media to interact with clients, potential clients, and other freelancers.

Social media is a great tool for freelancers (and since social media is most often free it’s very budget-friendly). But if you’re not careful, social media can also take up a lot of your valuable project time.

Of course, strategies will vary for each individual freelancer. However, over the past few years I’ve put a lot of thought into social media strategy. The tips in this post should work for most freelancers.

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5 Unique Benefits That Freelancers Offer to Their Clients

Posted November 27, 2011 in Getting Clients, Marketing

Small businesses (and let’s face it, most freelancers are small businesses) really have it tough when it comes to competing with agencies and other large businesses. For one thing, the larger companies tend to have a much larger marketing budget.

Freelancers, on the other hand, tend to have a very small marketing budget–if they have one at all. Instead, they rely on networking and word of mouth.

But, does a small business or a lone freelancer stand a chance when competing with a larger organization for a client?

I think they do. Bigger isn’t always better. In this post, I ‘ll list five unique benefits that freelancers can offer to their clients.

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Time for Freelancers to Become More Social and Play the Game

Posted November 21, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media

For freelance writers, there are a lot of avenues available to promote their work.

Social media, however, should be the first and foremost tool to spread the word about interesting articles, searching for individuals to interview, gathering new story ideas and more.

Some of the challenges that freelance writers can face with social media are which outlets to use, how often to use them, and where and when to promote them. Although social media is not rocket science, it can be challenging at times, therefore stop writers from effectively using the various tools at their disposal.

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20+ Helpful Google+ Brand Page Resources for Freelancers

Posted November 20, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media

A few weeks ago Google+ rolled out their much anticipated brand pages. These brand pages are intended for company and business use (in contrast to the original Google+ profiles, which had to be registered to an individual).

Many big brands have jumped on the bandwagon and set up their Google+ Pages. Many freelancers have also set up pages for their blogs and businesses. You may be wondering if these pages can help you build and strengthen client relationships.

If you haven’t looked closely at the Google+ Page functionality yet, you may be wondering if this feature is for you. While I can’t make up your mind for you, I can provide you with information to help you decide whether a Google+ brand page is right for your freelancing business.

In this post, I identify over 20 resources on Google’s new brand page feature. I’ve sorted this information into categories so that you can easily find the information that is most useful to you. Of course, this information is changing all the time, so feel free to add your own Google+ information resources in the comments.

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8 Reasons Freelancers Should Charge More Than Employees

Posted November 14, 2011 in Managing Clients, Marketing

One of the biggest issues that beginner freelancers face is deciding how much to charge their clients.

It can be difficult to decide how much to bill for your work. While it is something you do figure out with time, you have to start somewhere.

A piece of sound advice is to decide how much you need to make in a year to be happy (taking expenditures into account), estimate the number of billable hours you will work, and figure out your rate that way.

Of course, even estimating the amount of billable hours you will work can be difficult. A year is a long time, and a lot of unexpected things can happen.

But in the midst of all the confusion there is one certain thing: as a freelancer, you should charge more than you would be making as an employee!

Here are a few reasons why…

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14 Q & A Sites Where Freelancers Can Shine

Posted November 9, 2011 in Getting Clients, Marketing

Freelancing is all about making positive connections and building relationships. The more relationships that you build, the greater your pool of potential customers.

That’s why, as a freelancer, I like to examine different means of connecting online. Today, I’ll examine question and answer (Q & A) sites and provide a mini review for fourteen popular Q & A sites.

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